News Roundup – Is This Going To Be the Summer of the MOOC?

It was a relatively light week for MOOC developments, but that gives us time to look at a couple of interesting classes you might not know about, a lot of them starting just in time for the end of the U.S. school year. Summer of the MOOC maybe?

The staffing agency Aquent has a new MOOC initiative called Gymnasium following up on their Summer of Learning experiment last year. They are preparing a class called Coding For Designers, date unannounced.

The SJSU School of Library and Information Science will run Hyperlinked Library MOOC — a.k.a. #hyperlib MOOC — this fall. (Capped at 400 students. ) They say it is, “intended to serve as a professional development opportunity for librarians, library staff and professionals who work in archives and other types of information centers” and that it will have “an emphasis on play, experimentation and social interaction with other learners as part of the program.”

The National Writing Project has been teasing a class called Connected Learning MOOC or #clmooc, starting June 15. They’re not offering a lot of information about what it will focus on, but you might infer something from the philosophy at their Summer of Making and Connecting site: “Connected Learning fosters the adaptive, lifelong learners that can flourish in a world of rapid technological change. And by encouraging active engagement with real problems and real needs, it motivates students to realize their potential.”

As always, if you spotted some MOOC news that didn’t get enough Twitter chatter, make sure we know about it. In the meantime, to get this news roundup in your email box, be sure to sign up for our newsletter.

My content marketing services firm provides all-in-one external staff solutions for companies looking to grow their business through thought leadership. I started MOOC News & Reviews in 2013 out of a fascination with the economic, demographic and technological forces impacting edtech, online education and higher education, and I wanted to provide a forum for serious discussion of this new phenomenon. I love building communities of writers engaging in lively critical dialogue about emerging issues.